Proof of Life / Lebenszeichen

Exhibits from a private collection, which have never before been presented to the public in this format, will be on show at Weserburg in Bremen until 25 February 2018. More than 100 paintings, sculptures and photographic works allow viewers to consider how to deal with existential questions of life and death.

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John Isaacs, The Architecture of Empathy (Pietà), 2014, Privatsammlung

At the centre of the exhibition is the question of why expressive images lodge in the collective memory and how they then also maintain their relevance when their original societal context has long since changed.

Many of the exhibits are new interpretations of famous works or pick up on characteristics of prominent models in order to transfer these into the present context and to update them. A significant part of the exhibition is represented for example by the life-size sculpture by Gavin Turk, in which the well-known 1793 painting of “The Death of Marat” by Jacques-Louis David is merged with a self-portrait of the artist. As a result, the level of meaning is altered behind the depicted person. Marat, previously exalted as a martyr, becomes here an example of the failure of modern art in conveying central values such as enlightenment and freedom.